


Red Back Spider

by Jupiter_moons



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Bug science, F/M, Friendship, OG character wump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22661884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jupiter_moons/pseuds/Jupiter_moons
Summary: Peter finds himself not in control of his body, and there's this sound, it's like a non-sound, the absence of sound...so, naturally he decides to find it's source.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Original Female Character
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is one of the stories i wrote for Watt-pad but I'm moving most of my works over here cause i don't really like Watt-pad anymore :/  
> anyway, enjoy!

Chapter One

Not at the top of his game today; the friendly neighbourhood Spider hoped that a swing through the streets of New York would brighten his somewhat lousy day. It was like the bad luck fairy had come and showered him in bad luck dust. All day he had been uncharacteristically clumsy, unable to keep on track with a train of thought and for some infuriating reason, he couldn’t pronounce things correctly.   
If stepping into a rather obvious- and large- puddle this morning in front of the school wasn’t embarrassing enough, being called on for a usually fairly simple answer in biology class and fumbling over his words certainly was.   
The young boy’s glum mood was due to the frustration at today’s awfulness and that, for the sake of his pride- or the burn of embarrassment on his face- his problems couldn’t be solved with his spider like powers.  
While pondering today’s atrocities he has found himself swinging around the same block over and over again, like some kind of instinct he had no knowledge of or control of was telling him to go in circles.   
After what felt like the fifth trip around this particular block, he had to stop himself, opting to climb to the top of the tallest antenna on this block to achieve a somewhat better vantage point of what on earth was going on.   
As if his brains were put into some kind of blender and put on rinse and repeat, Peter found himself losing his train of thought and jumping down from his vantage point because he momentarily forgot what he was doing only to remember not seconds later and climbing back to the top of the building.  
He did this 4 times, climbing down and then back again before he realised he was doing it, just as though he was on some kind of really poorly programmed auto-pilot. Letting out a frustrated shout to no one in particular, he gave up and jumped down from the antenna. Swinging himself over to the next block, the teenage superhero thought a slight change in scenery might jump start some straightforward thinking.  
Rubbing his hands down his face, Peter tried to compose himself or ground himself, focusing on the feeling of the Stark-made super suit that don his small frame, the feeling against his skin, how it moved over him while he breathed. Something simple should compose him, surely.   
Wrong.  
Before he knew it he continued rubbing his arms at the feeling and sound of the material of his super-suit,  
‘What the hell is wrong with me today?’ The small sixteen-year-old says to himself, although anyone could have heard him, he wasn’t exactly hiding right now; standing on the overhang of a coffee shop as the people below had phones and cameras out taking photos and no doubt videos of him spacing out.  
Realising his weird space out will kick him in the butt later he moved to somewhere a little more private; a roof top. Those people must have thought he was on drugs or something, rubbing his arms up and down like he was some crazy person.   
Flopping down on the bitumen of the roof top allowed himself less of a distraction, spread eagle and starring at the sky as the clouds floated overhead, slightly greyed by the rain ready to fall from them,   
It looks like it’s going to rain; I wonder if it would rain… the clouds are so fluffy today.  
‘What am I doing?’ Peter shook his cloudy head and covers his eyes with his hands, ‘I must be on drugs.’ He jokingly admits to himself.  
‘You’re not on drugs, Peter, your system is clear.’ Karen, his suits built in Ai informs him.   
‘I knew that, Karen. It was a joke. I-I just don’t know what’s wrong with me!’ Then, after a moment of yet more spacing out; ‘Karen, what’s wrong with me?’   
‘Peter, your heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels and blood glucose levels are all normal…’ after an awkward pause from the Ai the monotone female voice continues with; ‘The neurons in your frontal lobe, however, are firing at an alarming rate by normal medical definitions you should be having a seizure.’  
‘Karen, you should have led with that…’ and after a moment of over thinking what is wrong with him, ‘So what is wrong with me?’   
‘You seem to be having a bad reaction to infrasound waves.’ The female voice informs him. Karen brings up a map, on his heads-up display, of the local map, zooming in on an old underground subway station.  
‘The infrasound is coming from an old subway station nearby; it appears the old station was left unfinished and abandoned.’ The artificial voice relays all the information she can find on the location to the web head.  
‘Let’s go find where this infrasound is coming from.’


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm legit just gonna post this whole story in one go so whatever,  
> enjoy :D

Chapter Two

Crawling through an old fire escape of the subway station, the rickety old ladder seems to be the dream home for the biggest spiders Peter has seen in New York. New Yorkers aren’t known for their acceptance of the wall crawlers in their home and often kill them on sight so it’s rare to see large spiders in New York. Choosing to climb down the wall, for not only his safety but, so he doesn’t disturb his brethren living peacefully and away from the size six oxfords that claim so many of their lives, Peter makes his way down to the bottom of the tunnel.  
Reaching the subway station fire escape door, Peter has to tenderly grasp the spider infested door handle to avoid squishing the other arachnids. Upon opening the door, the teenager is met with a revolting waft of rotten vegetation, a wall of humidity that could rival the butterfly house in central park zoo and thousands of thousands of bug containers.   
The sound of humming heat lamps, tick-tack of bug feet on the glass and the crunch of a rather large tarantula chewing down on its latest victim nearly sends Peter into the inescapable void of a sensory overload. The only thing stopping him is the sound or more of a… non-sound…? This infrasound makes the sixteen-year-old feel like he’s just dunked his head under water and it’s all gotten stuck in his ears or as if his ears have popped from altitude changes. Whatever the feeling is it makes the young boy’s head spin and his body hum. Walking forward, closer to the sound like a deer caught in the head lights of an oncoming car, he finds two huge duel speakers blasting out the disorienting sound.   
Unable to keep his focus, as if he’s gone a week without sleep and his eyelids won’t stay open and continue they to droop as he blinks away the feeling of sleep it doesn’t last long enough for him to focus on anything. He finds himself swaying helplessly at the sound waves emanating from the speakers as a large glass cage closes in around him, panels of glass rise from the ground and seal him in.   
The sound stops and he feels himself gain control again only to realise he’s too late the glass cage has closed and sealed around him, a little smaller than his own bedroom, this space feels very hostile.   
In a panic, he punches and kicks out at the glass panels that appear to be sealed shut with some kind of air tight seal. He’s about to land another punch to the glass until he notices four holes in the glass, about head-high and closed with mesh so, if he really wanted to, he can’t even poke his fingers out.  
He’s trapped.  
‘Hello!’ A happy sounding female voice rings out in the relative darkness of the old station, the female voice sounds fairly calm, and it’s not Karen’s slightly annoying monotonous pitch.  
‘Hello?’ Peter questions the voice as spins around, unable to pin point the voices’ owner due to it bouncing off the walls of his new glass home, ‘Who are you?’ Peter calls out, ‘What do you want?’ He shouts when he doesn’t get a response.   
‘Oh… hang on.’ The female voice rings out, by the sounds of it, she’s young. ‘Uh, my name is Pa- uh, Red back.’ She corrects herself suddenly; she steps into the light cast by the many heat lamps in the surrounding, smaller glass cages.  
The girl, look about Peter's age, if not a little older, she’s fairly short and looks really small in the lab coat that covers her tiny shoulders. Her black hair falls over her face and she brandishing a clip board over her torso as if she’s going to use it as a shield.  
‘Uh, ok, Red back, mind telling me what’s going on here?’ Peter asks, putting on his “Spider-Man voice.”  
‘Oh, it’s not what it looks like Spider-Man!’ she holds her clipboard out in front of herself in surrender, as if the overall hostile atmosphere wasn’t exactly what she was aiming for.  
‘Well from where I’m standing,’ he gestures to his current surroundings, ‘it looks an awful lot like you’re going to try and feed me to your massive bugs or something... Or-or worse.’ He suggests while not thinking about what or worse could be, but tries to keep his cocky confidence about him that he often holds when talking to possible enemies.  
‘Oh no... No-no-no! Spidey, I just wanted to ask you some questions!’ She steps up to the glass and lifts herself up on her toes to speak through the four breathing holes; at least Peter supposes that what they’re for.  
‘How long are you planning on keeping me in here exactly?’ Peter enquiries using as much of an intimidating voice as his pubescent vocal cords could muster.  
‘Like a day or two.’  
Forever...?  
‘I promise.’  
She’s lying.  
‘I’m not crazy or anything!’  
She’s crazy.  
‘It’ll be fine!’  
She probably wants to find out my identity.  
‘I don’t want to know your identity or anything; I just wanted to know more about you, Spider-Man.’  
‘Why do you want to know more about me but not my true identity?’ Peter is a little taken back by that comment. Whenever he runs into “fans” they always want to learn about his identity, want a photo, a quote or something, but this girl; Red back, doesn’t seem to want anything too damaging, so what’s the harm in answering a few of her questions?  
‘What’s the point? I’m a really big fan of what you do up there,’ She points up to the roof, up to the busy streets of New York, ‘and if someone finds their way down here I don’t want them to learn your identity and use it against you!’ she says with a small, light laugh.   
Taking her odd gesture and her comment; ‘What you do up there,’ and the fact she’s a little dirty Peter supposes she’s spent a long time down here, whether it be voluntary or not, he can’t tell, but, even through the thick glass separating them he can tell she’s not in good shape.  
‘How long have you been down here Red?’ Peter uses the nick name to hopefully earn her trust a little quicker in the hopes she’ll let him out of this glass box.  
‘I’ve lived down here for about three years now.’ The small girl wanders around the glass box over to what looks like some kind of master switch, she gives the massive handle a yank, revealing strings upon strings of fairy lights and gift shop paper lanterns hanging from the concrete roof and pillars holding up the city above. The different coloured lights remind Peter of the city at night.  
Taking another look at the wall of bug cages and the skilful and organised set up of all the cords, tech and computers lining one corner of the old station, Peter can’t help but admire this girl’s respect for tech –and bugs if he’s being honest.  
‘Who are you? Really...?’ Peter asks, in a more Peter Parker like voice.  
‘I suppose if I want you to trust me, I might as well tell you…’ The girl pulls up a wheelie chair and sits down with her clip board in hand. ‘My name is really Paige Pym; my uncle is Hank Pym.’


	3. Chapter Three

The girl now has a name; Paige Pym. She explains to Peter that her mother, Laura is Hank Pym’s sister who died of pneumonia when Paige was two. She also explains that if Spider-Man were to answer her questions she would show him how to use sound waves to control New York’s arachnid inhabitants.  
‘Ok. First question,’ She small teenager has pulled her knees up on the chair and is now sitting cross legged, her clip board leaning on one knee for support. ‘How did you get your powers? Were you born with them?’  
‘Technically that was two questions, but uh, I got my powers after I was bitten by a spider with radioactive DNA.’ Peter answers if all the questions are going to be this easy he might as well get comfortable.  
‘That’s amazing!’ She comments quietly as she writes it down,   
‘Peter is it wise to be telling this stranger about your abilities? She may be creating a file on you to distribute to criminals who wish to do you harm.’ Karen pipes up, nearly startling the boy. Peter ignores the AI so he doesn’t give way the fact he’s got a powerful Stark designed super suit. Who knows, perhaps, Paige will want to inspect it or tinker with it, she looks like a tinkerer, she has grease and burns on her lab coat that would suggest she was at least.  
‘Peter, did you hear me?’ The AI pushes a little louder, Peter does his best to shush the AI afraid that if he shows he has someone talking to him Paige might freak out and keep him locked in this cramped glass box for the foreseeable future.  
‘If you’re so worried perform an internet search on her or her mother.’ Peter tells the AI as quietly as he can manage. ‘And call Tony and tell him where I am if she doesn’t let me go by tomorrow afternoon.’  
‘Yes, Peter.’   
‘Ok next question, the webs you have, you they- do they like come out- out of you?’ The raven haired girl asks hesitantly like she’s asking him something personal like what brand of underwear he wears.  
‘No, they come out of the web shooters I made that sit on my wrists, I press this button here and they shoot out.’ Peter demonstrates by shooting a web from one side of the box to the other creating a tight rope for him to sit on like a swing.   
‘Wow, you made them yourself? That so cool! How strong is the webbing?’ The young girl says as she jumps out of her seat to look closer at the web he’s just shot.   
‘One strand can hold around a ton.’ He says, secretly proud of the reaction she gave to his invention.   
‘I’ve noticed by the samples I’ve collected of your webbing that it doesn’t last long, it’s biodegradable?’ She asks, keeping the stream of rapid fire questions going like an interview.  
‘Yes, I make the webbing myself.’ Peter takes a silver vial of the web liquid from his small utility belt and presses it up to the glass, ‘they come in these.’   
‘Wow, so small, how much does it contain?’ She squints through the glass.  
‘About four hundred feet each...’ Peter explains, starting to become a little bored and uncomfortable in his standing position, choosing to climb the glass wall and hang from the top of the glass box. Paige hasn’t noticed because she’s too busy writing down things on her clip board.  
‘Uh, ok next quest- oh wow, how cool! How- How do you do that?’ she asks as she looks with a tilt of her head as she tries to tip her head upside down to look at Peter better.   
‘I have tiny little, hooks I guess, on my hands and feet that allow me to stick to the tiny imperfections in even the smoothest of surfaces.’ He demonstrates by crawling around on the walls and ceiling of his glass cage.  
‘Wow, that’s really is amazing Spidey! What else can you do?’ She says as she lifts her head and writes down what she can on her clip board.  
‘Peter is it wise to tell her everything?’ Karen interjects again, actually startling Peter this time.  
‘Are you alright Spider-Man?’ Paige notices him flinch, a concerned look crosses her face, ‘Oh, did the speaker turn on again?’ she rushes out of her chair to go check,  
‘No! No, I’m fine I think we should change things up a little.’ Paige comes back and sits in her chair, intrigued by his offer, ‘How about I ask you a few questions?’   
‘You just did.’ Paige retorts without so much of a heartbeat. Peter rolls his eyes, but with the super suits mask, Paige can’t see it.  
‘I just rolled my eyes by the way but you can’t- the suit- yeah.’ Paige just nods and shuffles herself into a comfortable position in the wheelie chair that she looks incredibly tiny sitting in.   
‘I’m not letting you out by the way. I don’t want to get webbed up, save that for the bad guys, and I’m not a bad guy!’ Paige stresses.  
‘Is that why I’m in a box?’ Peter asks. Paige gives a subtle nod in response. ‘Alright, if you have lived down here for three years, does that mean you’ve been by yourself this whole time?’ Peter asks a little concerned for her welfare.  
‘Yes, I didn’t know my father, but as I told you before, my mother died when I was young so I’ve been pretty much alone since then.’ Paige stares at the floor with a twisted pout and a far off look in her eyes while she nods, ‘Anyway- yeah, CPS wasn’t for me so I’ve been hiding down here for about ten years but I’ve been living down here for three.’ Paige looks up at Peter again who is now suspended by the thin strand of webbing from the ceiling.   
Peter feels a spike of sorrow and the need to help her so, vows to himself that when he gets out of here he’ll try his best to help her both as Spider-Man and Peter Parker... she needs it.


	4. Chapter Four

Three hours of Peter and Paige going back and forth asking each other questions, Peter learns she chose Red back as her alter ego or go-to code name because they are a small very dangerous species of spider from Australia and she thought it was fitting since she’s very small and her father was apparently Australian.  
Three hours later and Paige has finally fallen asleep, hunched over in her chair her hand leaning on her cheek to support her while she sleeps. Peter supposes now would be a better time than any to try and escape or try and call Tony for advice, but only as a last resort. The last thing he wants is for Iron man flying in here breaking shit to get to Peter and scaring Paige.  
Over the last few hours he’s come to kind of like Paige, she very eccentric and boisterous kind of like a puppy, she could be a fun person to be friends with, but in another situation, obviously.   
Testing everything he can to pry a part the corners of the glass cage, he comes to the conclusion the seals must be magnetised or electrified because even with super-spider strength the thick glass panes won’t budge.  
Peter take a break from assaulting his confines and tries to find another way out, perhaps he could use the tiny spider drone to flick a switch somewhere over on the random assortment of buttons and switches over by the massive mix-mash of computers and monitors in the corner.  
He notices as he looks around the old subway station, that for a subway station it’s ridiculously cosy and clean... Well, for a supposedly abandoned subway station. Not to mention the makeshift wall bug cages that line the would be street entrance all have different bugs in them; smaller ones’ house ants and spiders and beetles while the bigger ones hold things like praying mantis’ and even Rhino beetles. On the opposite corner of the station to the computer is a large netting cage with that looks like different butterflies, moths and even bees.  
This girl is big into bugs. That’s probably why she hatched a devious plan to catch Spider-Man, she knows what spiders a capable of and she knew he would be affected by the infrasound, which also means he will be affected by ultrasound… that’s not going to be fun, especially when the infrasound messed him up so much. God, how bad will ultrasounds be if infrasound was that bad?  
‘Peter, do you require assistance?’ Karen speaks up while Peter is thinking way too hard about trying to escape.  
‘Karen, did you search up Paige’s parents and confirm her story?’ Peter asks the AI as he slides down the glass opposite the sleeping girl.  
‘Yes, her parents were, Laura Pym and David Jules. She was born in New York, and her mother died from pneumonia when she was two years of age.’   
‘You could have just said yes.’ Peter rolls his eyes at the AI. From this position, Peter can see Paige’s hollow cheeks, the dark circles under her eyes; the many twinkling lights overhead even show the dullness in her raven hair and the yellowness of her pale skin. This girl appears to be in desperate need of some TLC.   
The thought of how it’s possible for a girl her age, to feed herself everyday settles heavy in Peter's gut, she probably hasn’t eaten in weeks and most likely hasn’t bathed in months, the poor girl is probably withering away under that lab coat and all she wants is for someone, who would be more than willing to help her, answer some silly questions. Peter shakes his head in sorrow at this poor girl’s living conditions and suddenly this glass box doesn’t seem so horrible.   
With quite a start, Paige all but leaps from her chair, making it fall back in the process. Peter jumps to attention as he leans up on the glass to check if she’s alright.  
‘Paige? Paige, are you alright?’ Peter asks worried she might have hurt herself. The raven haired girl stands from her toppled chair and wipes tears from her eyes,  
‘I’m fine.’ She checks her watch to find it’s half past one in the morning, ‘I am so sorry you’re probably so hungry! What can I get you to eat?’ She asks completely ignoring Peter’s concern. She hurries over to a make shift kitchen; a gas lit camp cooker, a fold out table and an old fridge. ‘Do you- do you eat bugs…?’  
‘No, a PB and J will do fine thank you.’


	5. Chapter Five

Now that he knows her story is straight and that she’s actually telling the truth Peter supposes that his PB & J isn’t going to be poisoned. He lifts up the bottom of his mask to take a bite of the slightly stiff sandwich.  
‘Huh, I thought you would have facial hair.’ Paige comments while the young boy chews his sandwich. Peter nods with a hum as he takes another bite, for a subway dwelling (possibly) fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl she sure knows how to cake on PB & J.   
Paige hesitates to ask yet another question for a moment and seems to debate whether or not the answer is worth it, but; ‘How old are you?’  
‘I’m 16.’ Peter supposes that telling her his age won’t give away his true identity.   
‘Wow, you’re not much older than me, I’m 15.’ Peter tilts his head ever so slightly at the fact the young scientist isn’t running to write that down. ‘It’s ok I won’t write things like that down, Spider-Man, I’m not interested in what under the super suit, I just want to know what you can do!’  
‘You know it still makes no sense if you're only interested in what I can do why the glass box?’ Peter asks as he finishes his last bite of his sandwich.   
‘Well other than keeping you locked up until we could trust each other, the glass box was for my safety as well yours, I have pretty dangerous spiders crawling around, they don’t bother me and I don’t bother them but I don’t want you to get bitten... again. That might cause... problems.’ The young girl says as she gestures to the roof and to Peter. Upon further inspection, there are quite a few spiders in amongst the lights hanging from the ceiling.   
‘Other spiders are the least of my concerns.’ The Human-Spider says as he tries to count all the different spiders, he loses count around thirty when Paige speaks again,  
‘Well, in that case, I’ll let you out, but tomorrow. Now, get some rest I want to do a couple tests with you tomorrow, nothing hard.’ The young scientist says as she waves a goodbye and disappears into the darkness of the back of the old station.   
Peter supposes that if he’s going to sleep in this stupid glass cage he’s not going to be sleeping on the floor. So he webs himself a make shift hammock, but close to the ground so when it decays he doesn’t have far to fall.  
Getting comfortable on his web-hammock he sits back and listens to the sounds around him, the constant hum of heat lamps and computers. Now that he’s gotten used to it the wet heat of the room isn’t too bad, it replaces the need for a blanket. It’s going to feel weird sleeping in the Spidey suit though; he’s never done it so this will be a small test of his own.  
Morning rears its head a little gentler than he had expected but, Paige’s soft rapping on the glass is better than falling from the hammock when it finally did decay.   
‘Morning... Ready to come out of there, Spider-Man...?’ The raven haired girl asks as she flicks a few switches on a switch board in the ground near the glass box. The hinges squeak and groan as the glass panels fall away into the ground like secret doors. Peter stands absolutely still as the glass recedes into the ground and waits patiently for Paige to do something, anything.   
‘Ok, so another question before we start, does bug spray affect you?’ she says in all seriousness.  
‘No.’ Peter says with a playful giggle while he follows Paige to the assembly of computers in the corner. There are at least four different computers including a laptop and six different monitors all displaying different things; word documents, news snippets, lists, calendars and even Saturday morning cartoons.  
‘Ok first things first,’ Paige says as she clacks away on the key board on the table, ‘how much weight can you lift?’   
‘Dead lift or-’ Peter asks remembering back to the time he was trapped under a building when fighting The Vulture and dead lifted nearly a ton of concrete to save himself. Paige just shrugs at the question so Peter continues, ‘nearly a ton.’   
‘Is that from experience?’ Paige whips around to face him with wide eyes. Peter nods hesitantly, ‘Dead lift you say? That’s impressive!’ Paige clacks away on her computer, adding to Spider-Man’s little fact file on one of the screens.   
‘Ok, how fast can you run then?’ the young girl asks as she takes a seat in her wheelie chair.  
‘I don’t know... but, faster than most cars in New York, what’s the speed limit?’ Peter asks, Paige just shrugs, she probably wouldn’t know anyway if she’s lived down here as long as she said.  
‘Ok for the first test I need some bugs.’ The raven haired girl rushes past Peter a little too eager to present her collection to Spider-Man.   
Peter eyes the large tarantula with caution hoping she doesn’t reach into his tank. To his displeasure, she does, with ease, like she has a relationship with said spider. She takes the large brown arachnid out of its cage and places it in Peter’s hands. Neither bug moves for a moment.  
Paige holds up a small remote looking thing that emits more sound, the large spider reacts almost instantly, climbing up Peter's arms and to the top of his head, Paige stops the sound and looks at the other bugs in the tanks,  
‘That’s amazing; they’re drawn to you, all of them! This remote emits Ultra sound and spiders and other bugs retreat to somewhere they feel safe, apparent you make them feel safe!’ Paige says as she scoops up the arachnid and places the hairy thing back in its cage.  
‘That thing made my eyes water.’ Peter says pointing to the remote in Paige’s hands.  
‘Peter that remote she’s holding can be dangerous to you in higher decibels, it can and will cause major brain damage.’ Karen informs Peter in an uncharacteristically panicked voice for the AI. Peter nods in his suit, unsure whether the AI would actually pick that up.  
‘Next, can you step into the butterfly enclosure? Just stand there, I want to see what happens.’ She says as she takes Peters arm and drags him closer. Peter has to fight not to rip himself from her hold, her hands are so cold, dangerously so.   
Peter steps into the mesh enclosure and just as he would have guessed the butterflies and moths part like the red sea when he enters.  
‘Huh, interesting.’ Paige says as she moves back to the computer to write things down.  
‘Karen, can you perform a scan of her when she comes back? Full vitals...’ Peter instructs his AI when Paige is out of ear shot. When Paige comes back, clip board in hand, she begins writing more things down. Peter’s heads up display show a scan of Paige’s body and what he sees isn’t good. Paige’s organs seem to be failing one by one, her kidneys, liver and large intestine already look dead and her heart looks like it’s severally damaged; a possible heart murmur.   
Peter’s heart sinks at the scan’s results. This small frail girl is dying and the last things she’s going to do before she dies is helping Spider-Man. Peter looks up at Paige and sees her eyes have become engrossed in red capillaries and the dark bags under her eyes age her indefinitely. Peter notices the blood on Paige’s hands when she brings her hand up to cough he can see why.  
Peter exits the bug enclosure and places a hand on Paige’s shoulder comfortingly, ‘Paige, I know someone who could help you.’


	6. Chapter Six

The dying girl looks up at her idol, Spider-Man with a horrified look, shocked at his sudden compassion and knowledge of her terminal condition.   
‘How- How do you-’ she stutters, up close Peter can see the bruises and blood on her skin, she’s been like this for a while. Peter taps the side of his head in an answer,  
‘Stark technologies in the suit, I scanned you, I saw the-’ Peter looks down at the small girl,  
‘The heart murmur... a-and stuff...’ She finishes for him. She hangs her head in shame and steps back. She folds into herself, almost, making her look even smaller, ‘it’s ok. This is what I want.’ She says in a tiny voice. Without his spider hearing, he probably wouldn’t have heard her.  
‘You want to die down here in this abandoned subway station and not even consider help?’ Peter says trying to keep some kind of professional composure. Paige just shrugs. She slinks away to her computer where she hands him and small watch looking thing.  
‘This is the Bug Remote, it will call nearby bugs to your location the buttons control the infra and ultrasound that only the spiders can hear.’ Paige hands Peter the remote with a defeated look on her face, ‘Just go, I don’t want you here when I finally go, I want to be alone.’  
‘No, Paige I won’t go, I’m here to help, in any way I can.’ Peter takes a step towards her but she backs up and turns away from him.  
‘Then- then... I’ll- I’ll- I’ll make you! Just go I’m warning you Spider-Man, just go!’ The young girl shouts at him trying to push her voice past the lump in her throat. Peter doesn’t flinch but he does when she activates the ultrasound with her small remote. The sound renders Peter speechless like he’s just had all the wind knocked out of him. It makes his eyes water, nose run and ears pop, not to mention makes him feel like he’s being crushed under that building again, breathing becomes difficult and his mind feels fuzzy, blurred around the edges and getting darker.  
He tries his best to reach for the remote but in doing so, it falls from Paige’s hands and falls to the floor, pieces of plastic and electronic parts fly out like a dust cloud, increasing the intensity of the sound. Peter falls to his knees, covering his ears as best he can, trying to hold in what may or may not be dribbling out his ears.   
The teenager feels Paige’s hands fall to his shoulders and shake him, she’s saying something but Peter can’t concentrate.   
‘Peter, Iron man is three minutes away.’ Karen informs the young boy who is desperately trying to hold his head together before it explodes, which he feels is entirely possible. Peter feels like he’s about to pass out he’s light headed and feeling very numb.   
Iron-man comes crashing through the roof not moments later, sending bits of concrete, dirt and smashed tiles flying through the old station. Many bug cages are broken in his landing and the bugs inside scraper.   
‘Hey kid you alright?’ In his landing, Tony also broke the speakers and most of the computers over in the corner. Peter tries his best to speak but nothing but gibberish comes out as if his tongue is paralysed. Tony searches the room for anything or anyone to punch for the state Peter is in.   
Paige moves under a piece of rubbles and Tony zooms over to smack the life out of her but hesitates when he realises she’s not older than Peter. Lifting the debris off of her the billionaire lifts the chunk of concrete of the young girl and tries to get her attention.  
‘Hey! Hey, kid!’ Tony claps his iron man suit’s hands together to make enough noise to startle her into consciousness.   
‘Paige!’ Peter shouts when his brain is unscrambled enough for him to form words, ‘Paige are you ok?’ His voice is almost to the point of a squeak, worried for her welfare she picks her up, despite the numb feeling in his arms and legs and the ache in his bones. ‘Mr. Stark- Tony, she needs urgent help, she’s dying.’ Peter explains, Tony just looks at him with astonishment,   
‘What are you doing? She’s held you captive for nearly 24 hours and tried to kill you and you want to help her?’ Tony says bitterly.  
‘She needs my help, Tony!’ Peter screams at him when he doesn’t move, not adding anything that could win the case, except for the best puppy dog eyes he could muster while in his suit and his blind need to help the poor girl.  
Peter jumps out of the hole Iron man made in his rush to get in here, the abandoned plot of land the subway station sits below is shadowed by two skyscrapers, providing enough light but the right amount of shade for Peter to get a better look at the dying girl.  
Paige’s skin is a pale grey, her hollow cheeks and sunken eyes look worse in the mid-morning light, her lips are covered in blood, cracked and dry. Her skin is still cold and her eyes, as Peter can now see in the light are green, although the blood shot takes away the green almost entirely. Peter yells at Karen to call an ambulance or something when Tony cuts in,  
‘I’ll take her to the compound; she'll be seen quicker than in any hospital.’ Tony lets his voice drop and allows Peter the reassurance she’ll be better off at the Avenger’s compound, the way he’s holding her body, how he curled around her, breaks Tony’s heart. The whole flight over here he thought he’d be pulling Peter out of that hole like that, not some random girl trying to perform experiments on him.  
Tony carries Paige’s frail body while Peter follows behind on a web line attached to Tony’s foot. He flies over the city as fast as he can without Peter going and flying off in the wind.


	7. Chapter Seven

It takes several days before Paige even moves a muscle. Wires and tubes coming from her every which way, ensuring her blood pressure is right, heat rate is normal and her breathing is acceptable. Peter watches on in horror as she crashes multiple times from her sustained injuries, but, each time she pulls through albeit by the skin of her teeth.   
For three days Peter barely leaves her side. He holds her hand and tells her everything will be fine. Every day after school Peter spends about an hour talking to her and just waiting for her to wake up, to tell her he saved her like he’s obligated to as Spider-Man and even if she didn’t want it, she deserved it.  
All things considered, she’s a battler, she’ll pull through and now, she’s safe. She’s in the best hands. Four days after the accident she wakes up, to find a stranger holding her hand asleep beside her and Tony standing at the end of the bed holding her clip board containing her stats.  
‘He cares about you; did you know that?’ Tony practically whispers,  
‘Who is he?’ She looks down at the dirty blond boy asleep with his head buried into the mattress beside her; he’s twisted in an uncomfortable chair sitting beside the bed.  
‘Who do you think?’ Tony says rather sourly, ‘The hero you’ve been updating fact files on for over the past few months.’  
‘He’s Spider-Man?’ She asks with a small smile as she cranes her neck to get a better look at him. The boy is wearing a blue hoddie and track suit pants, he looks like he’s been here a while, plates of food and cans of drink as well as the odd coffee cup litter a small table to the side of his chair,  
‘You’re like him.’ Tony says almost accusingly, ‘Accept the spider that bit you had venom too powerful for your healing factor to handle, hence the shutting down organs and hole in your heart. The Red back spider venom was destroying you faster than you could heal.’ Tony explains to her, still standing at the end of her bed, looking rather intimidating.  
‘I know.’ She says quietly, Tony just frowns.  
‘And yet instead of calling for help, you called out to our friendly neighbourhood spider and did something stupid that could have, if it fell into the wrong hands, caused him a lot of pain.’ Tony says raising his voice a little, ‘What you did was foolish. I’m not going to forgive you as quickly as he did.’ Tony turns and exits the infirmary shutting the door loud enough to wake Peter from his uncomfortable slumber.  
Paige doesn’t have time to display the hurt she feels over Tony’s comment; she turns to Peter as he lifts his head to look at her. He rips his hand from her and straightens up in the chair,  
‘Uh, hey, are you- are you alright? How are you feeling?’ Peter stutters awkwardly with a cute smile on his lips and a friendly look in his eye.  
‘Hey Spidey...’ Paige smile back, to which Peter stumbles over his words and coughs away his worries, ‘It’s ok. Your secret is safe with me.’  
‘Thanks... I’m glad you’re ok.’ Peter sits back in his chair looking a little more comfortable than before.   
‘Thank you for saving me, even if I didn’t want you to at the time, although I’m pretty sure that was the venom decay talking.’ She turns her head to him, looking into his warm, welcoming brown eyes, so beautiful. The boy standing before her isn’t what she thought The Spider-Man would look like under the red and blue suit, although he’s not bad on the eyes.  
‘Yeah, Tony told me about that. How long were you living with the venom?’ Peter asks looking over at Paige with a content look on his face, a face that belongs to an adorable boy, that’s now, relaxed knowing she’s going to be ok.  
‘I was bitten 18 months ago, although with the venom my abilities came in slower.’ The raven haired girl explains. Peter nods in understanding, unlike him; He had gotten his powers almost immediately after the spider bite.   
A silence falls between them and Peter thinks Paige is almost asleep before she asks him;   
‘What’s your real name Spidey?’ She says sleepily from her squishy pillow.  
‘Peter.’   
‘Well, Peter it’s nice to meet you.’ Paige lifts her hand for a hand shake.  
‘It’s nice to meet you too, Paige.’

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short but sweet, i hope you all enjoyed!  
> in case you didn't pick it up in my writing I'm from Australia, so some of the spelling might be different and trying to edit on this site is frustration cause it want me to put Zs everywhere for some reason, anyway if there are mistakes just accredit it to my laziness.
> 
> this story had a part two that I'm still editing so i might throw that up as well in the next few days ;)


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